Lottery results are up

[Anonymous]

Banneker accepts more students than spots ahead of time so that families can plan to send kids to BSI over the summer. I don't know the precise number, but something along the line of 230 seats offered for a final class of 180 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Banneker accepts more students than spots ahead of time so that families can plan to send kids to BSI over the summer. I don't know the precise number, but something along the line of 230 seats offered for a final class of 180 students.

Walls does this too now. Something like 190 seats in the lottery for 150 seats in the freshman class. Not every kid enrolls at either school, and this approach is easier for the school and the families than moving the waitlist.

Private schools do this too. And colleges. It’s a really standard approach to enrollment management.

[Anonymous]

How likely is it to move off the waitlist of Capitol Hill Montessori?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How likely is it to move off the waitlist of Capitol Hill Montessori?

Sharing this again in case it got buried in the thread. That will give you some indication of past year’s offers for your child’s grade level: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

[Anonymous]

Incoming 2nd grader and new to the lottery process but our results are:

Hyde-Addison - Waitlisted #12
Stoddert - Waitlisted #17
Ross - Waitlisted #23
Lafayette - Waitlisted #30
Key - Waitlisted #12
Janney - Waitlisted #27
Garrison - Waitlisted #8
Seaton - Match (but we won't be choosing this due to the swing space)

Is there a way to tell how likely a spot at Hyde-Addison would be? I'm reading the past offer numbers and it seems like good news but wanted to know if I'm missing something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I was hoping for slightly better numbers, but as expected I'll be watching waitlists all summer and fall, looks like. But we matched with John Lewis which we're excited about!

For K:
1 Ross Elementary School Waitlisted - #24
2 Garrison Elementary School Waitlisted - #10
3 Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS Waitlisted - #17
4 E.L. Haynes PCS - Elementary School Waitlisted - #6
5 John Lewis Elementary School Match (enrollment pending)
6 Lee Montessori PCS - Brookland Sibling Offered Waitlisted - #1

For 1st Grade:
1 Ross Elementary School Waitlisted - #45
2 Garrison Elementary School Waitlisted - #20
3 Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS Waitlisted - #35
4 E.L. Haynes PCS - Elementary School Waitlisted - #8
5 John Lewis Elementary School Sibling Offered Waitlisted - #1
6 Lee Montessori PCS - Brookland Match (enrollment pending)

We put Lee down without much thought and will be turning down that offer - but is it just me or is it crazy that we got an offer for 1st from them with what must be a pretty crappy lottery number? They must be really falling in popularity.

Folks with "really crappy lottery numbers" get waitlist numbers in the hundreds. Looks like you got a fairly decent lottery number, all things considered.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My rising 9th grader also marked "ineligible" at Banneker (but decent waitlist at Walls, go figure!) even though she has stellar grades and had a good interview and has a sibling at the top of her class at Banneker. Must have been a really competitive year. Congrats to everyone who got what they hoped for! For those who didn't, hope your kids don't take it personally. The system is complete and total crapshoot even for the competitive schools.

Interesting. I have to say, I didn't think Banneker was all that tough of an admit. I honestly thought they accepted nearly all their applicants and weren't like Walls.

DCUM certainly pushes that narrative.

I think it's harder than it used to be. My DD 7th is pining to go.

I actually think it's just that people used to say whatever they wanted about Banneker with zero first-hand information and it was mostly informed by racism. Now that the "DCUM" kind of people are priced out of privates and running out of spots at J-R and SWW, all of a sudden they're "taking a chance" on the school they considered themselves benevolent pioneers for even considering, only to find out . . . it's not a cakewalk just because it's full of black kids.

DCUM kind of people would never be priced out of privates. The problem is people who don't belong on DCUM are now on here.

omg what.

"people who don't belong" -- care to spell this out for us? race, class? Say what you mean (and take the consequences).

The people who are now priced out of privates.

Financial aid is so generous at DMV private schools I wonder who is actually priced out.

Not at the best independent schools. $7k discount off $61k generally does not make this workable for most people who need to ask.

Catholic “privates” are, of course a different category and have bigger gifts, due to their mission

Someone just posted on another thread that they are getting 45k of aid at a Big 3 with a HHI of 300k

We have a HHI less than that and got $0 in aid from a local Catholic HS. According to the financial aid office, our assets (home equality, savings, Roth/IRA etc.) worked against us in their formula. So specific circumstances matter.

+1. HHI 200k and got into well known private discussed here and absolutely no FA. If you have any assets, they work against you.

I suspect PP above kid plays some type of sport school wanted.

Yep. We had not appreciated how much our savings would hurt us here. I get that the schools see it as money we could spend but we definitely see it as retirement or college only. It was an unpleasant surprise.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My rising 9th grader also marked "ineligible" at Banneker (but decent waitlist at Walls, go figure!) even though she has stellar grades and had a good interview and has a sibling at the top of her class at Banneker. Must have been a really competitive year. Congrats to everyone who got what they hoped for! For those who didn't, hope your kids don't take it personally. The system is complete and total crapshoot even for the competitive schools.

Interesting. I have to say, I didn't think Banneker was all that tough of an admit. I honestly thought they accepted nearly all their applicants and weren't like Walls.

DCUM certainly pushes that narrative.

I think it's harder than it used to be. My DD 7th is pining to go.

I actually think it's just that people used to say whatever they wanted about Banneker with zero first-hand information and it was mostly informed by racism. Now that the "DCUM" kind of people are priced out of privates and running out of spots at J-R and SWW, all of a sudden they're "taking a chance" on the school they considered themselves benevolent pioneers for even considering, only to find out . . . it's not a cakewalk just because it's full of black kids.

DCUM kind of people would never be priced out of privates. The problem is people who don't belong on DCUM are now on here.

omg what.

"people who don't belong" -- care to spell this out for us? race, class? Say what you mean (and take the consequences).

The people who are now priced out of privates.

Financial aid is so generous at DMV private schools I wonder who is actually priced out.

Not at the best independent schools. $7k discount off $61k generally does not make this workable for most people who need to ask.

Catholic “privates” are, of course a different category and have bigger gifts, due to their mission

Someone just posted on another thread that they are getting 45k of aid at a Big 3 with a HHI of 300k

We have a HHI less than that and got $0 in aid from a local Catholic HS. According to the financial aid office, our assets (home equality, savings, Roth/IRA etc.) worked against us in their formula. So specific circumstances matter.

+1. HHI 200k and got into well known private discussed here and absolutely no FA. If you have any assets, they work against you.

I suspect PP above kid plays some type of sport school wanted.

Yep. We had not appreciated how much our savings would hurt us here. I get that the schools see it as money we could spend but we definitely see it as retirement or college only. It was an unpleasant surprise.

I think it is reasonable to exclude primary residence value, but after that, of course savings have to count against FA. Otherwise trust funders would be getting FA to private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Incoming 2nd grader and new to the lottery process but our results are:

Hyde-Addison - Waitlisted #12
Stoddert - Waitlisted #17
Ross - Waitlisted #23
Lafayette - Waitlisted #30
Key - Waitlisted #12
Janney - Waitlisted #27
Garrison - Waitlisted #8
Seaton - Match (but we won't be choosing this due to the swing space)

Is there a way to tell how likely a spot at Hyde-Addison would be? I'm reading the past offer numbers and it seems like good news but wanted to know if I'm missing something.

Good chance! We were #10 on HA for second a few years ago and got a spot in early May with no sibling preferences.

You will likely see the number go up and down, lots of K and 1st spots means younger siblings will pull in older ones.

We’ve been very happy at HA, I hope you’ve done a tour/open house.

[Anonymous]

So we got into a school we'd be thrilled to attend for K - here's the rest of the list (we might move around the order a bit) - we were OOB for our entire list and nabbed a top 5 school so we'll be happy either way, but...

1 Murch Elementary School Waitlisted - #18
2 Hearst Elementary School Waitlisted - #21
3 Janney Elementary School Waitlisted - #29
4 Lafayette Elementary School Waitlisted - #22

The main/only issue we have with our current option is: Hardy-MacArthur, not Deal-JR. Looking at the past few years, it looks like we could have gotten pushed down 5-10 spots at Hearst by siblings and new IB arrivals and still have gotten in 4 of the past 5 years; similar at Lafayette in 2 of the past 3 years (last year, could have been pushed down 20 more spots and still gotten in.) The other schools - probably no chance?

But this isn't our first trip to the rodeo, we know every year is different, and there can be individual factors pro and con that make the difference...any intel - and cold, hard reality based assessments of our chances - welcome! Thanks

[Anonymous]

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Also has anyone been deemed ineligible for Walls yet? Odd for that designation to be appearing for one school but not the other. McKinley's waitlist is likely small enough that they didn't have to do a cutoff, but I would presume that Walls and Banneker would have similar applicant numbers and similar cut offs for the lottery pool.

The difference is that Walls puts every kid they interview but who doesn't match on a waitlist. And then that waitlist moves some amount over the summer/fall.

Banneker (and McKinley) have historically not maintained a waitlist - so they match the kids they match and no one else gets in.

More transparency in all of the selective high school application review processes would be very valuable, but DCPS doesn't want it so it won't happen.

One has to wonder why DCPS doesn’t want transparency.

Isn’t it obvious? Equity people.

I’m actually not sure if that’s it. But there is something super shady about the process.

Well the city actually said they wanted more kids from wards that were under-represented at Walls when they dropped the test. They actually sent people out to schools in ward 7 and 8 to tell the kids to apply.

But Walls didn’t actually wind up enrolling more kids from Wards 7 and 8. The Post did a story on it. What they have is a system that enrolls a wildly disproportionate number of kids from Deal, Hardy, and the Hill, but is unpredictable about which of those kids it takes.

I would suggest relooking at recent data because a lot less kids are getting in from ward 3.

The Hill is not Ward 3. And lots of kids at Deal and Hardy don’t live in Ward 3. Where are the stats on students enrolled in the school by Ward over the past several years?

Students IB for each HS as a percent of total SWW student body SY19-20 to SY24-25
J-R 37% to 33%
MacArthur NA to 7%
Eastern 22% to 16%
Dunbar 9% to 10%
Cardozo 8% to 7%
Coolidge 6% to 7%
Roosevelt 5% to 8%
Anacostia 4% to 4%
Ballou 4% to 4%
Woodson 3% to 4%

So minimal/no change for Wards 1, 2, 5, 7 and 8, more students from Wards 3 and 4, fewer students from Ward 6.

You can also look at SWW students as a percent of total students living in each boundary*. From SY19-20 to SY24-25
Anacostia 1% to 1%
Ballou 1% to 1%
Cardozo 4% to 2%
Coolidge 3% to 2%
Dunbar 3% to 2%
Eastern 9% to 5%
Woodson 1% to 1%
JR 13% to 11%
MacArthur NA to 11%
Roosevelt 2% to 2%

*It's hard to make too many conclusions from this because these numbers only draw from the population that actually ended up at a DC public or charter school for HS.

Hmmmm at least directionally this shows the same pattern you see from other selective schools dropping entrance exams. You don’t get more representation from underrepresented neighborhoods, basically, and sometimes less.

Look, I doubt it’s what was intended and it’s not necessarily good for Walls, but I think the unpredictable admissions at Walls have been good for the DC school landscape more broadly, and are also mostly good for individual students.

The fundamental policy problem with Walls is one that no admissions procedure can solve: there are more qualified students seeking a free college prep high school education in DC than there is room, physically, in the Walls facility.

The lack of predictability at Walls has forced families who previously assumed Walls was their future to think seriously about J-R, Latin, Basis, DCI, Banneker, Duke, MacArthur, and McKinley Tech as college-prep options. Eastern seems to be next in line. Some families have gone private or moved to the suburbs, but others attend these high schools, reinforcing their status as college prep pathways.

This constellation of smaller college-prep programs is good for the kids, too. Back in the 80s and 90s the prevailing idea was that all smart kids needed to be gathered together. But right now elite colleges limit the number of kids they take from each high school, so collecting all the high performers into one high school works against them for college admissions. (There is actually a thread going on the college board right now about this problem at TJ!) Gathering all the highest-testing kids together at Walls would make the 8th grade application/lottery season less stressful, but the present quasi-random approach gives us a better overall school system and better overall college outcomes.

If my kid's test scores meant she would definitely get into Walls or Banneker, I would be much more likely to put her in our zoned middle school rather than keeping her at BASIS, which is ok but not a great fit. That you have to either leave DCPS in 5th grade for charters or move to JR to guarantee your advanced kid a school with a significant number of students at grade level is not actually a good thing.

I agree with the earlier poster that you’re responding to that the landscape is changing and that’s a good thing. If Eastern really is next in line, that becomes transformational for a lot of people in this city. I disagree that you have to leave DCPS for charters in 5th, and a considerable number of Hill families increasingly feel that way. Do many/most still try to lottery for charters? Probably. But more enroll in their IB MS now if that doesn’t happen. As I think has been said, I’m not sure many kids are striking out on ALL select HSs right now, but if success is defined as just SWW or SWW/Banneker, there aren’t enough slots to make that a guarantee—and I agree with the earlier poster that ultimately that’s a good thing.

I felt this way but all of the zoned middle schools on the Hill are of such poor quality that I would rather move. And yes I looked very closely, talked to parents, toured the school, talked to current students etc. They don’t offer enough opportunities for students. And I don’t think Walls or Banneker are remotely of good quality to be considered a draw to stay. But that’s just my informed opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How likely is it to move off the waitlist of Capitol Hill Montessori?

But honestly would you really send your kids there? Yikes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incoming 2nd grader and new to the lottery process but our results are:

Hyde-Addison - Waitlisted #12
Stoddert - Waitlisted #17
Ross - Waitlisted #23
Lafayette - Waitlisted #30
Key - Waitlisted #12
Janney - Waitlisted #27
Garrison - Waitlisted #8
Seaton - Match (but we won't be choosing this due to the swing space)

Is there a way to tell how likely a spot at Hyde-Addison would be? I'm reading the past offer numbers and it seems like good news but wanted to know if I'm missing something.

Good chance! We were #10 on HA for second a few years ago and got a spot in early May with no sibling preferences.

You will likely see the number go up and down, lots of K and 1st spots means younger siblings will pull in older ones.

We’ve been very happy at HA, I hope you’ve done a tour/open house.

Yup, 2 years ago our 2nd grader was #18 at Hyde Addison and ended up getting an offer in June (which we didn't take). no preferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So we got into a school we'd be thrilled to attend for K - here's the rest of the list (we might move around the order a bit) - we were OOB for our entire list and nabbed a top 5 school so we'll be happy either way, but...

1 Murch Elementary School Waitlisted - #18
2 Hearst Elementary School Waitlisted - #21
3 Janney Elementary School Waitlisted - #29
4 Lafayette Elementary School Waitlisted - #22

The main/only issue we have with our current option is: Hardy-MacArthur, not Deal-JR. Looking at the past few years, it looks like we could have gotten pushed down 5-10 spots at Hearst by siblings and new IB arrivals and still have gotten in 4 of the past 5 years; similar at Lafayette in 2 of the past 3 years (last year, could have been pushed down 20 more spots and still gotten in.) The other schools - probably no chance?

But this isn't our first trip to the rodeo, we know every year is different, and there can be individual factors pro and con that make the difference...any intel - and cold, hard reality based assessments of our chances - welcome! Thanks

We had single digit lottery numbers last year for K at Murch and Lafayette and didn't get an offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So we got into a school we'd be thrilled to attend for K - here's the rest of the list (we might move around the order a bit) - we were OOB for our entire list and nabbed a top 5 school so we'll be happy either way, but...

1 Murch Elementary School Waitlisted - #18
2 Hearst Elementary School Waitlisted - #21
3 Janney Elementary School Waitlisted - #29
4 Lafayette Elementary School Waitlisted - #22

The main/only issue we have with our current option is: Hardy-MacArthur, not Deal-JR. Looking at the past few years, it looks like we could have gotten pushed down 5-10 spots at Hearst by siblings and new IB arrivals and still have gotten in 4 of the past 5 years; similar at Lafayette in 2 of the past 3 years (last year, could have been pushed down 20 more spots and still gotten in.) The other schools - probably no chance?

But this isn't our first trip to the rodeo, we know every year is different, and there can be individual factors pro and con that make the difference...any intel - and cold, hard reality based assessments of our chances - welcome! Thanks

We had single digit lottery numbers last year for K at Murch and Lafayette and didn't get an offer.

PP here: You're right - it was the year before (43 K offers in 2024-25!)
It's soooo variable year by year ...which is why I'm curious whether anyone has any special insight into the dynamics and special circumstances at any of these options this time around...